Blake Lively is bringing back early aughts fashion with a Britney Spears circa 2001-inspired outfit.
On Friday, June 28, the actress was spotted enjoying a night out on the town with friends Isabela Ferrer and Hasan Minhaj. While enjoying Greenwich Village, New York, the Gossip Girl star shined in a denim mini dress featuring a scooped neckline and fitted cut, Hello! reports.
The baby blue denim look was covered with light-reflecting rhinestone embellishments, which only made the actress stand out alongside friends Ferrer and Minjah.
In a Spears-inspired move that mimicked the pop star's iconic 2001 American Music Awards head-to-toe denim outfit, Lively paired the mini dress with an ankle-length blue denim trench coat. The oversized, mid-wash piece was slightly darker than the denim mini dress, providing the perfect contrast between the two denim fits.
To complete the nostalgic fit, Lively carried a Chanel crossbody bag with denim detailing and gold hardware, because clearly there is no such thing as too much denim.
The denim-on-denim trend was solidified back in 2001, when Spears and her then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake wore matching head-to-toe denim outfits while walking the red carpet at the American Music Awards.
In a previous interview with Jezebel, costume designer Steven Gerstein gave some behind-the-scenes insight into how the pair (with some help) created the now infamous look.
"It was such a no-brainer. Justin and Britney were dating at the time. We were in New Orleans when Britney and Justin were like, 'We're doing matching denim.' And I was like, 'How are you doing that? Who is doing that?,'" he said at the time. "We wound up taking the Costume National suit that Justin wore for the Celebrity album coverWe remade it in denim. Conversations with Levi's were happening were happening at the same time, and Britney was working with Kurt and Bart. We had some crossover contacts at Levi's, so it went from being an idea to it being made within days."
Back in 2015, Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, paid homage to the look (in his own way) via a tweet, in which Reynolds photoshopped the pair's faces onto a picture of Spears and Timberlake walking the American Music Awards red carpet.
In 2014, singer Katy Perry and rapper Riff Raff walked the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet in matching double-denim outfits also inspired by Spears and Timberlake.
As The Cut reported at the time, Perry updated the look with studs and various hues creating a patchwork denim look that was more in-style at the time.
"She looked like she was having the most fun out of anyone on the red carpet," the outlet reported at the time. With all that denim, how could she not, right?!
In 2022, Perry revealed the reason why she decided to walk the red carpet in a denim-on-denim look circa 2001.
“I asked Riff Raff to come with me and we both wore matching Versace that actually pays homage to Justin and Britney,” Perry explained during an appearance in Mo Heart's Amazon Music series The Walk In. “That moment Britney gave us was the moment, and I wanted to pay my respects.”
